So yeah, we're almost done with Operation Anchorage. Thank god. Just a little bit more time to spend in the simulation, and then we're back to the good old Capital Wasteland.
This time we don't get to bring our squad. I'm glad you went through all that trouble with introducing a new gameplay mechanic just to spend 30 minutes with it.
That one soldier guy still follows us though. I still can't believe he wasn't pointlessly killed off yet.
We walk right into the middle of the battlefield, and rockets are exploding all around us. Although a few blow up pretty close to us, we don't get hurt much.
Now we go down into the trenches. I'm not sure I understand the purpose of having trenches here...
The allied AI is so goddamn dumb.
And here I thought they were dropping mediocre repetitive combat in favor of a shitty forced stealth mission or something. Somehow, I think the stealth mission would have been more fun, even if it was completely terrible.
Of course, any possible difficulty in this section is completely destroyed by the fact that the health dispensers are right down the trench.
This is worse than regenerating health.
Another captured soldier and more intel.
Repeat this image ad nauseum and you pretty much got the gist of the whole trench section of this game.
It's funny that a game that is very much about conserving ammo has ammo dispensers that give you free ammo in the DLC. Sure, it doesn't effect the outside world but Operation Anchorage almost fells like a horrible, horrible prototype of what Fallout 3 could have been.
A Pre-War Fallout game could have been cool, but not like this.
Not like this.
Throughout this whole part you can't go for more than 5 minutes without a huge explosion. What is this, Call of Duty?
In fact, this really feels like a horrible mixture of Fallout and Call of Duty. (Don't get me wrong, I find Call of Duty fun, especially 4 which I loved but this kind of gameplay really doesn't feel like Fallout 3 at all.)
There's a flamethrower guy to mix up the combat here.
The guy who follows you has the same few lines or so.
The game just pretty much gives you supplies after every few fights. At least it isn't drawing to draw it's length out by killing you repeatedly, but this isn't fun either.
There's a bunker with two turrets in it that can seriously damage you if charge right at it and try to take out the turrrets. That would be the stupid thing to do though, going around makes the turrets entirely moot.
Bethesda loves hiding these pyro's in corners right behind you so that they could ambush you.
Hey, at least they don't have Backburners. Fuck Backburners.
More rocket launcher enemies at close range, lovely.
Eventually you leave the trenches and get into the battle proper. Due to the limitations of Bethesda's engine, they can't really make large scale battles with many NPC's but I'll cut them some slack on that one.
The way this part is set out is that you have to take direct fire when trying to continue further in the level. We don't have the sniper weapon pack or any decent long ranged weapons, except the Gauss Rifle, which we're shit with.
I think the simulations AI is becoming self aware and they're fighting over the infinite health dispensers.
The turrets are rather annoying to take down.
I love how the Gauss Rifle sends people flying on critical hits.
A soldier in Power Armor destroys the turrets with his minigun. These guys showed up in the middle of the fight and mowed down any opposition almost instantly, it's a pretty cool scene.
This part shows some potential but it still isn't fun to have your super-powered AI allies to do all the work for you, even if the combat is so boring and uninteresting.
The Gauss Rifle is still fun to use, can't overuse it though. Ammo for it is rare, and it isn't replenished by the ammo machines.
We come across an absolutely huge minefield. Better be careful...
Uh, I don't think running out in the middle of there is the smartest idea...
Yeah, that was a bad idea. So the idea is that people power armor can't get across the minefield but normal footsoldiers can. It's still deadly electricity though, I mean that's easily enough to kill a normal person.
Huh, I wonder what the purpose of this building is.
So apparently this switch disables the minefield.
Again, deadly electricity.
And now the guys in power armor run across the battlefield towards the Chinese base.
You can see the actually town in the background but you can't actually reach it. Too bad, that could actually be a pretty interesting area.
Woah, the gates are blown up with mini-nukes. That's pretty cool how all the soldiers were using them to blow up the gates.
Now it's time for the climactic battle...
We walk in on the chinese commander killing one of the prisoners. What a jerk.
"[Speech, 100%] You've already lost, General. Don't throw away your dignity."
"[SUCCESS] You will never take me prisoner!"
So, he kills himself. What a fucking huge anticlimax. Fighting him normally is one of the most tedious battles in the game, however, so skipping it is fair game.
The general shows up out of nowhere.
I dunno. *shrug*
"Sir, Yes Sir!"
"With the General's death, our boys can secure this refinery and be on their way to Anchorage proper. You've helped pave the way for taking the city back from the Reds, soldier. Good work. That'll complete this portion of your training. Report to your superior for debriefing and you next assignment. Dismissed!"
Wait, if this is only a training sim, why does it open the fucking armory door?
This entire DLC to open a fucking door.
And now we're finally out of the VR pod and out of goddamn Anchorage.
Whatever's behind that door better be worth it.
Everyone's already congregated around that door. I thought it would just open right up after we completed the simulation.
Turns out not all the Outcasts are assholes after all. That's nice, I guess.
All of that work, to open a door that seems like it could be easily blown up.
That's a pretty awesome suit of power armor. It's entirely broken too, almost indestructible.
Oh look, a Gauss Rifle. This is Bethesda's way of apologizing for the entire DLC.
Uh-oh, some of the Outcasts are pissed off because we're able to take whatever we want from the armory.
All of the Outcasts turn hostile except for the commander and the scientist woman who was kind of a ***** to you.
There goes your head. That's what you get for not wearing a helmet.
You can keep McGraw and the scientist women alive, if you kill the Outcasts fast enough. Then they'll sell stuff and do some repairs for you.
We did manage to keep them alive, but I very much doubt we'll ever return here.
Yeah, I donned the Winterized T-51b power armor and with it, we're pretty much indestrucible.
Yup, suddenly their tune has changed now that we saved their lives.
Had to get the rest of the loot. Oh look, a rocket launcher we'll never use.
We also get a trench knife, chinese assault rifle and Jingwei's Shocksword.
The shocksword is pretty cool but the Shiskebab is better with they pyromaniac perk.
So, in the end, what was the point of Operation Anchorage? I would have loved to see an interesting take an the whole war in the pre-war Fallout universe, but they really didn't bother with that, and instead went for boring linear shooter mode.
And frankly, Fallout 3 as a linear shooter is terrible. It's not fun in the slightest, and constant combat is simply grating.
Just noclipping through the armory door and taking all the loot gives all the value of this DLC. This doesn't feel like it's something that would be in Fallout, pretty much all the charm of the series is forcibly ripped out and replaced with a completely straightfaced FPS, it isn't even played for laughs. At least Operation Anchorage is mercifully short.
Not shown in this update: Me fighting a small band of Super Mutants outside the elevator, and me stopping by Megaton to store the majority of the loot in our home.
Next update, not really sure where to go next...
